In 1981, when I was six, I was the left fullback for the Colo Cougars Under 7’s soccer team. We had good forwards and so the ball never came to our end of the field. A game of soccer consisted of myself, the other fullback and the goalie making mud pies in the goal box. I never learned any soccer skills.
This was certainly evident tonight when I played indoor soccer for the first time. Dave from work has organised a weekly 5-a-side match in a high school gym and tonight was week two. I was a bit nervous before the game as I cannot kick the ball within 20 degrees of my intended target, and I would be playing against Pommies, who were born with soccer boots on. This turned out to be an accurate prediction.
The game was dominated by 4 or 5 players with the rest of us just there for the ride, ball skills wise. I soon realised that possession was not my thing, my strength lay in intimidation and infuriation. As I don’t know the rules I was not sure where the line between pestering and assault lay, so I sort of winged it. I asked Dave and he told me that I am allowed to shoulder charge the enemy player who has possession. So I did. I also employed my basketball skills, marking a man and making sure that I was always in his way. This seemed to help.
As the game progressed I became bolder and attempted a few kicks. This was mostly unsuccessful, but from time to time I got the ball where I had intended instead of just passing it gently to an enemy player. It assisted me that most of the player were a bit less fit than me so I was more equipped to get where i needed to be. Despite the 6 vs 5 numbers the enemy team dominated, with a score of 10-1. It was at this time that a miracle occurred. I scored a goal! (I actually scored two goals in the course of the game, but own goals are not things that you boast about)
I really enjoyed playing and I will definitely make indoor soccer a weekly fixture. The slight improvement that I noticed during the course of the game is a trend that I hope continues to the point where I become a useful player instead of just making up the numbers.
The addition of soccer to the roster means that when kickboxing starts again I will be doing 4 sports a week. Quite a change from 2 years ago.